Places

The ancestral home of Clan Assamite perches like a hawk above the shifting sands of venerable Persia, and the bloody zephyrs nightly carry death from it across the world. Although few outside Kindred have divined the locations of the Clan of Assassins’ strong­ hold, paranoia grips the mountain fastness as the As­ samites, rife with schism within and beset by enemies without, watch fearfully the movements of their own elders and the sects aligned against their clan.

A stony fortress over a thousand years old, the re­ doubt itself lies beneath the ruins of a similar strong­ hold established as long ago by a mortal faction of hashishin. Approaching without the knowledge of As­ samite sentries is all but impossible, though the gov­ ernment of Iran has made recent efforts to turn the historical site into a tourist destination.

Alamut is the ancient stronghold where the assas­ sins train and the clan sorcerers archive their arcane knowledge. Beneath the mountain, from which the enigmatic “Old Man” directs the affairs of the clan, lie any number of Assamite secrets. Some suspect that the clan has discovered its Antediluvian progenitor, which it guards jealously. Others perceive shifts in

clan demeanor and suspect that rival Methuselahs vie for power in the blackest depths of the stronghold. Still others fear what they see as growing Assamite consolidation, and recent pilgrimages by Assassins of all ages to the seat of clan power do little to assuage their fears. It is an image the Assamites cultivate, turning the perceived weakness of their factionalism into a radicalized strength.